Tributes as Lancaster bomber pilot hero captured by Nazis dies at 91

ONE of the brave few surviving Lancaster bomber pilots shot down over Germany and taken prisoner has died.

Dick Starkey pictured on the left with his autobiography and on the right as a young RAF pilot [ROSS PARRY]

Heroic Dick Starkey, 91, was sent to the infamous Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war camp, where two famous escape bids were immortalised in films The Great Escape and The Wooden Horse.

Dick was shot down in his bomber, dubbed Queenie, by Messerschmitt pilot Martin Becker in 1944 after 22 missions.

He later struck up a friendship with the German flying ace and swapped Christmas cards. He also received a hero’s welcome by the people of Konigsberg, where his plane had crashed during his bombing route to Nuremberg.

His story was documented in Red Line, a book by former Gulf War PoW John Nichol, who was captured and tortured by the Iraqis in 1991.

John said: “Dick and his crew were right at the heart of the action and his story is an astonishing one of courage and sacrifice.”

Dick died peacefully in hospital from a stroke after a fall at home, his family said. A widower, following the death of wife Jean, he leaves two daughters, two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Daughter Denise Heckingbottom, 60, of Royston, South Yorks, said: “He was a gentleman. People all over the world were still writing to him. We thought he would live for ever.”

Dick told how he helped to fight the Nazis by piloting his way through bullet-riddled skies and out-manoeuvring the Luftwaffe to drop a total of 200 tons of bombs during the Battle of Berlin.

A painting from the book of Starkey's plane as it came under attack by Nazi pilot Martin Becker [ROSS PARRY]

He was shot down on March 30 during the 1944 Nuremberg raid – the RAF’s bloodiest night when 700 British aircrew were killed.

He was pulled from the crash, which killed every other member of his crew, and ended up in Stalag Luft III shortly after 50 officers were shot for their failed Great Escape bid using underground tunnels.

He was eventually set free and repatriated after German guards marched the camp’s prisoners for seven days in snow and ice, using them as a human shield against the advancing Russian troops.

Dick, from Barnsley, South Yorks, later wrote an autobiography, A Lancaster Pilot’s Impression On Germany.

The former pit office worker said he became an RAF pilot only to give the Nazis a taste of their own medicine after a blitz on Sheffield.

Of his own bombing raids, he said: “I’m sorry for what I did. But I didn’t regret it. The two nights I saw the Germans bombing Sheffield made me join up. They started it.

“It was a miracle I survived. When I met the pilot who shot us down there was no animosity. I met others and we were like a flying club. We became friends and swapped all kind of cards.” The people of Konigsberg salvaged some of Queenie’s wreckage and presented him with parts of his old cockpit, which he brought back home.

Only around 5,000 of 125,000 Bomber Command airmen are still alive. Their deeds and those of their former colleagues are commemorated in the Bomber Command Memorial opened in London in 2012.

Daily Express readers raised £500,000, a sum which was matched by the newspaper’s owner Richard Desmond.

Dick's funeral will take place at St John The Baptist Church, Church Street, Royston, South Yorks, on Wednesday at 2.30pm followed by cremation at Ardsley Crematorium at 3.30pm.